Freshman Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, says service members who have been accused of war crimes should undergo a war crimes trial before being pardoned by President Trump.
Trump is reportedly weighing pardons on or around Memorial Day for multiple members of the military accused or convicted of war crimes, according to the New York Times. Crenshaw said these pardons should wait until the courts decide the cases.
“These cases should be decided by the courts, where the entirety of the evidence can be viewed,” Crenshaw said in a statement to National Review. “Only after that should a pardon be considered.”
U.S. officials told the Times that the White House made expedited requests to obtain necessary paperwork to pardon service members including Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who was charged with shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife during a deployment in Iraq.
The officials suspect that among the others who may be pardoned include Army Green Beret Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who was charged with premeditated murder after he allegedly told the CIA he killed a suspected Taliban bombmaker in 2010. The officials have not seen a final list.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a former Air Force judge advocate general, agreed that military jurors needed to weigh in on the cases before pardons were issued.
“As a former active duty JAG, I know the main purpose of the UCMJ is to impose good order & discipline, which Washington called the soul of an army,” Lieu tweeted. “The charges against Gallagher are deadly serious. @POTUS should not circumvent the court-martial process. Let military jurors decide.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., cast doubt on whether the Navy could conduct a fair trial given the coverage of the case.
“I don’t trust the Navy to give him a fair trial, but I think with all of the focus on this case that he stands more of a chance of getting a fair trial now,” Hunter, who was indicted on federal corruption charges last year, told the Associated Press. Hunter and his wife pleaded not guilty to a 60-count indictment accusing them of misusing campaign funds.
Earlier this month Trump pardoned former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner while he was deployed to Iraq in 2007.
